UNC baseball had won 11 consecutive games, and with the wins Friday and Saturday over the Wolfpack, the Tar Heels had clinched their sixth straight conference series. North Carolina was rolling offensively, averaging 7.2 runs per game on the season and totaling 82 runs over the past six contests.
Those numbers didn’t make Sunday’s game a potential milestone, though. Rather, Fox was competing for his third consecutive sweep of an ACC opponent — something he hadn’t done since the last time the Tar Heels made it to the College World Series in 2013.
“It’s hard to sweep in this league,” Fox said.
“You have to be careful about the last two weekends. I’m like, ‘Man, we could do something today that I don’t think I ever have been a part of.’”
“That’s like unheard of in this league.”
But despite the recent offensive tear, the Tar Heels fell Sunday to N.C. State, 4-2, in their lowest-scoring affair since a loss to Miami three weeks ago.
North Carolina’s underwhelming performance Sunday could largely be attributed to N.C. State relief pitcher Johnny Piedmonte’s career showing. The 6-foot-8 redshirt senior only allowed four hits and struck out four in the five innings he manned the mound.
“Me personally, I just wasn’t seeing the ball well out of Piedmonte’s hand,” said junior Brian Miller, who accumulated two hits and three RBIs over the course of the weekend series.
